Page 1 of 1

Keen 4 "The original epilog is under construction" ?!

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 2:20
by anon702
Greetings, I've been directed here from Reddit where I was told this is the only active community left for this game.

I'll spare you too much backstory: I bought the "Commander Keen Complete Pack" on Steam recently with the intent of replaying these games for the first time in over two decades, and have been doing so using CGenius.

Upon beating Keen 4, I noticed that instead of going into the ending cutscene sequence, it displayed nothing more than a text box with very meager, shoddy content.

Image

In particular what stands out is "The original epilog [sic] is under construction." Does anyone know what this means? This seems more like something you'd find a leaked demo or in-development iteration of the game than anything else. Is the Steam version of Keen 4 busted? Is this some other kind of bizarre bug?

I tried googling for this but nothing came up at all. What does everyone think?

Re: Keen 4 "The original epilog is under construction" ?!

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 2:37
by Levellass
That... that IS very unusual. I've never seen the like before... but hen I've only ever played the original DOS-based games...

Re: Keen 4 "The original epilog is under construction" ?!

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 3:57
by Roobar
That is to be expected, if you're using CGenius. It's just that after all those years, CGenius still has not implemented the ending sequence, or you're using an old version. Just check whether you're using the latest version because if I remember well, it's probably implemented not long ago.

Re: Keen 4 "The original epilog is under construction" ?!

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 7:54
by Nisaba
@Fleexy: this thread should be moved to the https://pckf.rigeltechnical.com/viewforum.php?f=9 sections, since it's Commander Genius related.
over there the author of this fanmade Keen engine interpreter (@Gerstrong) can answer questions like this best.

BTW:
Commander Genius is a fork of CloneKeen. It fully interprets the classic DOS games Commander Keen 1-6 including some fanmade mods and adds some nice twists like smoother gameplay, some special graphical effects and also music, which was missing in the first trilogy.

Re: Keen 4 "The original epilog is under construction" ?!

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 10:22
by anon702
@ Roobar:

Thanks for the explanation. And yeah you're right, for some reason I ended up misreading something on the site and downloaded version 1.8.2.1 instead of the more recent 1.9.9.2.

@ Nisaba:

My bad. To be perfectly honest I never would have expected this to be the result of the sourceport somehow not supporting/implementing the ending sequence. Seems really strange. That said I'm not really complaining since it's been a good experience otherwise.

---

By the way, and I apologize for the off-topic, but I've also encountered a bug back in Keen 2. Those red little wallclimbing robots that you can jump on would sometimes inexplicably fall off the ceiling; it made one of the final levels pretty much impossible to beat without resorting to cheat codes.

Image

I'm talking about this one. As far as I can tell you're supposed to wait for the red robots to come to you and wrap around the ceiling, eventually going up and allowing you to pogo off them to reach the top area. The only problem was they would consistently 100% of the time fall off right at the corner between the ceiling and the blue wall going up. While playing I tried all kinds of things like reloading a save at the beginning of the level, reloading a save in the overworld, doing another level first and coming back to it later, relaunching the game etc. but for some reason this behaviour persisted.

Strictly out of curiosity, has anyone had this bug before and if so is it known what causes it? Thanks in advance.

Re: Keen 4 "The original epilog is under construction" ?!

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 15:54
by ScarletFlame
Hmmm... I never had that issue before. Hope you don't mind me asking, but can you link the original reddit thread?
also the red robots are called scrubs

Re: Keen 4 "The original epilog is under construction" ?!

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 18:13
by anon702
I'm not sure I understand what you mean by original reddit thread. This is an issue I encountered myself. :S

Good to know, about their name!

Re: Keen 4 "The original epilog is under construction" ?!

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 20:42
by K1n9_Duk3
anon702 wrote: Mon Jul 31, 2017 10:22To be perfectly honest I never would have expected this to be the result of the sourceport somehow not supporting/implementing the ending sequence.
CGenius is not a sourceport, which means everything had to be re-written from scratch. Obviously, the gameplay was the top priority here, that's why you've seen this error message.

On a related note, the ScummVM team still hasn't managed to make Maniac Mansion work from within Day of the Tentacle...

Re: Keen 4 "The original epilog is under construction" ?!

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 20:53
by anon702
K1n9_Duk3 wrote: Mon Jul 31, 2017 20:42
anon702 wrote: Mon Jul 31, 2017 10:22To be perfectly honest I never would have expected this to be the result of the sourceport somehow not supporting/implementing the ending sequence.
CGenius is not a sourceport, which means everything had to be re-written from scratch. Obviously, the gameplay was the top priority here, that's why you've seen this error message.
Interesting, didn't know that. I just assumed it's the same as ECWolf for Wolf3D. That explains that pretty thoroughly then, thanks!

Still curious if anyone's ever got the bug I found in Keen 2 though.

Re: Keen 4 "The original epilog is under construction" ?!

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 21:33
by K1n9_Duk3
anon702 wrote: Mon Jul 31, 2017 20:53Still curious if anyone's ever got the bug I found in Keen 2 though.
Are you talking about the original game (DOS version) or CGenius here?

Re: Keen 4 "The original epilog is under construction" ?!

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 22:01
by anon702
K1n9_Duk3 wrote: Mon Jul 31, 2017 21:33
anon702 wrote: Mon Jul 31, 2017 20:53Still curious if anyone's ever got the bug I found in Keen 2 though.
Are you talking about the original game (DOS version) or CGenius here?
CGenius.

Re: Keen 4 "The original epilog is under construction" ?!

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 22:16
by K1n9_Duk3
Then I suggest you try the same level in the original DOS version (with DOSBox, which I assume is what the Steam version comes with). If the original doesn't have this bug, tell gerstrong about it so he can fix it. Just open a new thread in the Commander Genius subform or send him a private message.

Re: Keen 4 "The original epilog is under construction" ?!

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 22:48
by ScarletFlame
anon702 wrote: Mon Jul 31, 2017 18:13 I'm not sure I understand what you mean by original reddit thread. This is an issue I encountered myself. :S

Good to know, about their name!
It's okay. You said that you were redirected here from Reddit, so I thought you made a post about this issue, and someone told you to come here.

Re: Keen 4 "The original epilog is under construction" ?!

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 22:52
by anon702
K1n9_Duk3 wrote: Mon Jul 31, 2017 22:16 Then I suggest you try the same level in the original DOS version (with DOSBox, which I assume is what the Steam version comes with). If the original doesn't have this bug, tell gerstrong about it so he can fix it. Just open a new thread in the Commander Genius subform or send him a private message.
Alright I'll try and do that and see what happens.
ScarletFlame wrote: Mon Jul 31, 2017 22:48
anon702 wrote: Mon Jul 31, 2017 18:13 I'm not sure I understand what you mean by original reddit thread. This is an issue I encountered myself. :S

Good to know, about their name!
It's okay. You said that you were redirected here from Reddit.
Oh. Yeah basically I looked for a Keen subreddit, found that this one is practically dead (ironically enough there's been a new thread within the last 24 hours after many months of inactivity, go figure :P ), and then found this one which led me to come here and ask my question(s).

Re: Keen 4 "The original epilog is under construction" ?!

Posted: Mon Jul 31, 2017 22:55
by Nisaba
@anon702 welcome to the forums!